Skip to content

Translations
Reviews
Timeline

Topics

Essays
Travel Diary

All Perspectives

Latest

Amateur Voltaire meme captioned 'A rigorous reconstruction of a conversation between besties (sometime in 1794… before April)': Desmoulins says 'Maxime, we've been besties since school. Obviously I can print whatever deranged nonsense I like and you'll back me…. Right? … Right?' and Robespierre answers 'ummm….'

Robespierre, Desmoulins and the Trial of the Indulgents

Painting of the attack on the Tuileries on 10 August 1792: national guardsmen firing up a palace staircase strewn with the bodies of Swiss Guards in red coats.

Henri de La Rochejaquelein at the Tuileries

Quotation card set over a detail of a portrait of General Marceau: “You speak to me of my laurels… they would fill you with dread; they are steeped in the blood of men.”

Marceau: The Republican General Mourned by His Enemies

Meme captioned 'Rouen: a nice, peaceful town (Not an actual event)', pairing a labeled medieval illustration with modern speech bubbles: Robespierre insisting Rouen saw no Terror, and Joan of Arc replying, 'Yeah. Love that for me.'

The revolution in Rouen

Photograph of a finished oil portrait of Robespierre on an easel in front of a bookshelf, captioned ‘Finished portrait of Robespierre (By Amateur Voltaire, March 2026)’.

The Many Faces of Robespierre

Ink and marker drawing of a dying General Bonchamps half-reclining on a sheet, bare-chested, right arm raised, above the handwritten words 'Grâce aux prisonniers'

The pardon of Bonchamps

Filter

All personalities

French Revolution Actors

Aiguillon (d’), Armand-Désiré Albitte, Antoine-Louis Alquier, Charles-Jean-Marie Amar, Jean-Pierre Aubert du Bayet, Jean-Baptiste Annibal Augereau, Charles Pierre François Autichamp (d’), Charles de Beaumont2 Babeuf, François-Noël Bacharetie de Beaupuy, Armand Michel Bailly, Jean-Sylvain Barbaroux, Charles Jean Marie Barère, Bertrand1 Barnave, Antoine Barras, Paul Beauharnais (de), Alexandre Beauharnais (de), Joséphine Bernadotte, Jean-Baptiste Jules Berruyer, Jean-François Bertier de Sauvigny, Louis Bénigne François Besenval (de), Pierre Victor Billaud-Varenne, Jacques-Nicolas1 Boissy d’Anglas, François-Antoine Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte, Napoléon2 Bonchamps (de), Charles3 Bonchamps, Marie Renée Marguerite de Scépeaux, marquise de1 Bordereau, Renée (Langevin)Bouillé (de), François Claude Amour Brissot, Jacques-Pierre Brune, Guillaume Marie-Anne Brunswick (of), Charles William Ferdinand Bulkeley, Céleste Julie Michèle Talour de La Cartrie Buonarroti, Filippo Burke, Edmund Buzot, François-Nicolas-Léonard Cadoudal, Georges Calonne (de), Charles Alexandre Cambacérès, Jean-Jacques-Régis Cambon, Pierre-Joseph Canclaux, Jean-Baptiste Camille de Carnot, Lazare1 Carrier, Jean-Baptiste Cathelineau, Jacques1 Cazalès, Jacques-Antoine-Marie Chalbos, Alexis Charette (de), François Athanase1 Charles X (comte d’Artois)Chaumette, Pierre-Gaspard1 Chouan, Jean Clavière, Étienne Clermont-Tonnerre (de), Stanislas Cloots, Anacharsis Collot d’Herbois, Jean-Marie1 Comte de La Bouëre Condé (de), Louis-Joseph de Bourbon Condorcet, Nicolas de Caritat Constant, Benjamin Corday, Charlotte Cordellier-Delanoüe, Étienne Jean-François Couëtus, Jean-Baptiste de Couthon, Georges Custine (de), Adam-Philippe d’Elbée, Maurice1 Danton, Georges1 Daunou, Pierre Claude François David, Jacques-Louis Desaix, Louis Charles Antoine Desmoulins, Camille2 Desmoulins, Lucile1 Dessalines, Jean-Jacques Donnissan, Guy Joseph de Drouet, Jean-Baptiste Dubois-Crancé, Edmond-Louis-Alexis Ducos, Roger Dugommier, Jacques Coquille Dumas, Thomas-Alexandre Dumouriez, Charles-François Duplay, Éléonore Duport, Adrien Éprémesnil (d’), Jean-Jacques Duval Fabre d’Églantine, Philippe-François-Nazaire1 Fauchet, Claude François Féraud, Jean Bertrand Fersen (von), Hans Axel Fleuriot de La Freulière, Jacques-Nicolas Forestier, Henri Fouché, Joseph Foullon de Doué, Joseph François Fouquier-Tinville, Antoine Quentin Francis II François de Neufchâteau, Nicolas-Louis Frederick William II Fréron, Louis-Marie-Stanislas Gensonné, Armand Gobel, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gohier, Louis-Jérôme Gontaut-Biron, Armand Louis de Gouges (de), Olympe Grégoire, Henri1 Grignon, Louis Guadet, Marguerite-Élie Hanriot, François Haxo, Nicolas Hébert, Jacques René Hédouville, Gabriel Marie Joseph d'Hérault de Séchelles, Marie-Jean2 Hoche, Louis Lazare Isnard, Maximin Joly, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, Jean-Baptiste1 Jullien, Rosalie Kellermann, François Christophe Kléber, Jean-Baptiste1 La Bouëre, Antoinette-Charlotte Le Duc, comtesse de La Fayette (de), Gilbert du Motier La Révellière-Lépeaux, Louis-Marie La Roche Saint-André, Louis-Marie de La Rochefoucauld, Marie-Adélaïde de La Touche-Limouzinière, comtesse de Lacombe, Claire Lakanal, Joseph Lamballe, Marie-Thérèse-Louise de Savoie-Carignan, princesse de Lameth, Alexandre-Théodore-Victor Lameth, Charles-Malo-François Lameth, Théodore Lanjuinais, Jean-Denis Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent Le Bas, Élisabeth Duplay Le Bas, Philippe Le Bon, Joseph Le Chapelier, Isaac-René-Guy Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, Louis-Michel Léchelle, Jean Léon, Pauline Leopold II Lescure (de), Louis-Marie3 Lindet, Robert1 Loménie de Brienne, Étienne Charles Louis XVI1 Louis XVII Louis XVIII (comte de Provence)1 Louverture, Toussaint Louvet de Couvray, Jean-Baptiste Lucas de La Championnière, Pierre-Suzanne Lyrot de La Patouillère, François de Madame Élisabeth Maillard, Stanislas-Marie Malesherbes (de), Chrétien-Guillaume de Lamoignon Malouet, Pierre Victor Marat, Jean-Paul Marcé, Louis Henri François de Marceau, François Séverin1 Maria Carolina of Austria Marie Antoinette1 Marigny, Gaspard de Bernard de Masséna, André Maury, Jean-Siffrein Merlin (de Thionville), Antoine-Christophe Merlin de Douai, Philippe-Antoine Mirabeau, Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti Momoro, Antoine-François Monge, Gaspard Moreau, Jean Victor Marie Moulin, Jean-François-Auguste Mounier, Jean Joseph Necker, Jacques Nelson, Horatio Noailles (de), Louis Marc Antoine Orléans (d’), Louis-Philippe-Joseph Pache, Jean-Nicolas Paine, Thomas Pétion, Jérôme Pichegru, Jean-Charles Pierre Philippeaux1 Pitt, William Pius VI Poirier de Beauvais, Bertrand Prieur (de la Côte d'Or), Claude-Antoine1 Prieur (de la Marne), Jean-Louis1 Puisaye (de), Joseph Quétineau, Pierre Rabaut Saint-Étienne, Jean-Paul Reubell, Jean-François Ripault de La Cathelinière, Louis-François Robespierre, Augustin2 Robespierre, Charlotte1 Robespierre, Maximilien9 Rochejaquelein (de la), Auguste Rochejaquelein (de la), Henri2 Rochejaquelein (de la), Louis Rochejaquelein (de la), Victoire2 Roederer, Pierre-Louis Roland, Jean-Marie Roland, Manon Romme, Gilbert Ronsin, Charles Philippe Rossignol, Jean Antoine Rouget de Lisle, Claude-Joseph Roux, Jacques Royrand, Charles Aimé de Saint-André, Jeanbon1 Saint-Just, Louis Antoine4 Santerre, Antoine Joseph Sapinaud de Boishuguet, Jeanne-Michelle-Ambroise Talour de La Cartrie de Sapinaud de La Rairie, Charles Sapinaud de La Verrie, Louis Scépeaux de Bois-Guignot, Marie Paul de Sieyès, Emmanuel-Joseph Sonthonax, Léger-Félicité Staël (de), Germaine Stofflet, Jean-Nicolas1 Suzannet, Pierre Constant de Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles-Maurice Tallien, Jean-Lambert Talmont (Prince de), Antoine-Philippe de La Trémoille Théroigne de Méricourt, Anne-Josèphe Thouret, Jacques-Guillaume Thuriot, Jacques-Alexis Travot, Jean-Pierre Treilhard, Jean-Baptiste Tuncq, Augustin Turreau, Louis Marie Vadier, Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vergniaud, Pierre-Victurnien Vimeux, Louis Antoine Vincent, François-Nicolas Westermann, François-Joseph

No personalities under this letter yet.

Topics

Essays
Travel Diary

All Perspectives

Dramatis Personae

Skip to content

Home /
Dramatis Personae /
Chouan, Jean

Jean Cottereau, called Jean Chouan

Born

30 October 1757

Died

29 July 1794

Jean Cottereau, a smuggler from Mayenne known as Jean Chouan, gave his nickname to the royalist insurgents known as the Chouans. From 1792, he led a local band operating around Saint-Ouën-des-Toits and the wooded countryside north of Laval. His role was that of a local commander rather than a strategist of the wider insurrection, but accounts of his activities and death helped turn him into one of the best-known figures of the Chouannerie.

Related peopleVendée & Chouans

Charles d’Autichamp

Charles de Bonchamps Madame de Bonchamps All in this faction →

Articles about

Jean Chouan

No articles about this figure yet.

Browse all articles →

Notes, translations, and reflections on the French Revolution and the world that produced it

Keep up to date

Every three months, get an email with new writing, translations and stories from the French Revolution.

Email

Website

Quick Links

Translations
Perspectives
Dramatis Personae
Reviews
Timeline

© 2026 All Rights Reserved.